>
> Hi gu(y)s,
> I agree with all good ideas you came up with the last week. I

am

> willing to get a Google account and fill in a shared excel
> spreadsheet that Lars wants to prepare. Ten consecutive FMC solved
> in 10 minutes should not be a problem to anybody while spending 1-
> hour every week could be a bit more difficult for some. I suggest
> that one can skip one week of two and catch up later. We trust

each

> other anyway and we agree not to work on (or look at others
> solutions) any FMC until the 1-hour attempt is finished and

> too
> > >>> short for me when I have to write moves down. The best 2 out

of

> > >>> about 30 trials were below 30 and the worst were close to 50
> > > moves
> > >>> and over time.
> > >>> The FMC 180 I finished as one of the worst and over time as
> well.
> > >>> Then I tried it second time: D' U2 R2 F B R L U' B' L2 B' U2

Hi, 10 minutes, or 5 minutes without writing down the solution, is a nice format. That s what I ve been doing for years. Averages of 12-2 or 7-2. But I like to

Message 2 of 16
, Jan 3, 2008

0 Attachment

Hi,

10 minutes, or 5 minutes without writing down the solution, is a nice
format.
That's what I've been doing for years. Averages of 12-2 or 7-2.
But I like to do them all in a row.
A good result for me would be 42 HTM or 36 STM. I even did a series of
100 solves (2 days): 37.9 STM.
Who would be patient enough to wait for 12 weeks for such a stat?

Hi :-) I used to achieve avgs of 41/52 for normal solving and supersolving about 20 years ago. All done semi-linearly. Only simple undoing moves. Never

Message 3 of 16
, Jan 3, 2008

0 Attachment

Hi :-)

I used to achieve avgs of 41/52 for normal solving and supersolving
about 20 years ago. All done semi-linearly. Only simple undoing
moves. Never restart. I propose this semi-linear format and 10 mins
INCLUDING writing it down and verifying it. I also recommend the fmc
companion to save time ;-) If anyone wants to ban it i'm still game,
but excessive time is spent non-productively :D

Hi, FMC companion can help you to verify your solution later and count moves. Is that what you mean, Per? Of course, why not. If you mean we can record our

Message 4 of 16
, Jan 4, 2008

0 Attachment

Hi,

FMC companion can help you to verify your solution later and count
moves. Is that what you mean, Per? Of course, why not. If you mean we
can record our solution by typing it in FMC companion and still have
10 minutes I am not against it. Although you will have time for an
insertion of a 3-cycle or so, you cannot do it since this short time
format does not allow taking moves back. You are suggesting to allow
counting F F2 as F'(1 move), R R as R2 (1 move), B B' (0 moves). I am
not sure about this. Let's see what others thing, I am for either
(forbid or allow). 10 weeks is a long time, so I understand Gilles
that he likes to do 10 attempts in a row. So far, we agreed on using
FMC #182 - #191 scrambles. Gilles, I can do 10 times 10-minutes in a
row if we throw in 10 random scrambles here, too. Then, anybody can
solve them and comment his/her results. We don't need a deadline for
such a free unofficial contest. I would not expect anybody of us doing
it often. I know, some of us are pretty busy, me included; Lars are
you with us? Both, the 10-week and 10 in a row (once the scrambles are
posted) can go in parallel. We'll see what interesting will come out
of this. And yeah, lets do 1-hour solutions each week. If somebody
wants to join but has to skip a week, do it later next week and just
catch up.
Any more suggestions? We're pretty much set.
So lube your cubes!
Mirek

... I had such a competition running once (fewestmoves5), but it is shut down now and replaced by linearfmc which requires the solution to be recorded. I

Message 5 of 16
, Jan 4, 2008

0 Attachment

per wrote:

> I'm a bit uncertain if you mean 10 weeks with best and worst deleted
> or 12 weeks with 10 counting entries ?? Best and worst wrt submitted
> lengths or wrt placement for that week?? Honestly i wish Ryan Heise
> would host those challenges. Just having results/entries floating in
> this group is very messy!! :D

I had such a competition running once (fewestmoves5), but it is shut
down now and replaced by linearfmc which requires the solution to be
recorded. I personally think it is interesting to submit the
solutions. I know it is more work, but it is interesting to see other
people's strategies for linear solving.

But it isn't necessarily me that has to host it if you want to use my
system, anyone can create their own competition on my server using my
administration interface which allows you to design your own competitions.

P.S. A number of people noticed that the "forgot password" feature
gives an error when you try to set a new password - BUT, then it logs
you in anyway. It gives me the idea that I can do away with passwords
and have authentication by email which I think is much nicer.

Ah, i had forgotten the not taking back moves restriction. Actually i m AGAINST that restriction for the 10 minutes format. It does allow for a few possible

Message 6 of 16
, Jan 5, 2008

0 Attachment

Ah, i had forgotten the not taking back moves restriction. Actually
i'm AGAINST that restriction for the 10 minutes format. It does allow
for a few possible starts. If we really stick to linear solutions
then most of the usefulness of the companion is lost anyway. I will
only use it for verification and counting :D

>
> Hi,
>
> FMC companion can help you to verify your solution later and count
> moves. Is that what you mean, Per? Of course, why not. If you mean

we

> can record our solution by typing it in FMC companion and still have
> 10 minutes I am not against it. Although you will have time for an
> insertion of a 3-cycle or so, you cannot do it since this short time
> format does not allow taking moves back. You are suggesting to allow
> counting F F2 as F'(1 move), R R as R2 (1 move), B B' (0 moves). I

am

> not sure about this. Let's see what others thing, I am for either
> (forbid or allow). 10 weeks is a long time, so I understand Gilles
> that he likes to do 10 attempts in a row. So far, we agreed on using
> FMC #182 - #191 scrambles. Gilles, I can do 10 times 10-minutes in a
> row if we throw in 10 random scrambles here, too. Then, anybody can
> solve them and comment his/her results. We don't need a deadline for
> such a free unofficial contest. I would not expect anybody of us

doing

> it often. I know, some of us are pretty busy, me included; Lars are
> you with us? Both, the 10-week and 10 in a row (once the scrambles

are

> posted) can go in parallel. We'll see what interesting will come out
> of this. And yeah, lets do 1-hour solutions each week. If somebody
> wants to join but has to skip a week, do it later next week and just
> catch up.
> Any more suggestions? We're pretty much set.
> So lube your cubes!
> Mirek
>
>
> --- In fewestmoveschallenge@yahoogroups.com, "per_fredlund"
> <per_fredlund@> wrote:
> >
> > Hi :-)
> >
> > I used to achieve avgs of 41/52 for normal solving and

supersolving

> > about 20 years ago. All done semi-linearly. Only simple undoing
> > moves. Never restart. I propose this semi-linear format and 10

> > nice
> > > format.
> > > That's what I've been doing for years. Averages of 12-2 or 7-2.
> > > But I like to do them all in a row.
> > > A good result for me would be 42 HTM or 36 STM. I even did a
> > series of
> > > 100 solves (2 days): 37.9 STM.
> > > Who would be patient enough to wait for 12 weeks for such a

HI :-) get away with passwords how?? Everytime you submit you just give your email address, then get a reply you have to reply to?? I have designed online

Message 7 of 16
, Jan 5, 2008

0 Attachment

HI :-)

get away with passwords how?? Everytime you submit you just give your
email address, then get a reply you have to reply to?? I have
designed online systems that require email confirmation. I can
honestly say it has been a pain. So mny users have email with very
tough restrictions. The emails sent out are never received...
Personally i'm starting to be in favor of not relying on email
sending from server. Oh well, that's another discussion ;-)

>
> per wrote:
>
> > I'm a bit uncertain if you mean 10 weeks with best and worst

deleted

> > or 12 weeks with 10 counting entries ?? Best and worst wrt

submitted

> > lengths or wrt placement for that week?? Honestly i wish Ryan

Heise

> > would host those challenges. Just having results/entries floating

in

> > this group is very messy!! :D
>
> I had such a competition running once (fewestmoves5), but it is shut
> down now and replaced by linearfmc which requires the solution to be
> recorded. I personally think it is interesting to submit the
> solutions. I know it is more work, but it is interesting to see

other

> people's strategies for linear solving.
>
> But it isn't necessarily me that has to host it if you want to use

... Not quite, the scheme I have in mind is a bit more subtle than that. To login (or in words that are perhaps more enlightening, to authenticate yourself)

Message 8 of 16
, Jan 5, 2008

0 Attachment

per wrote:

> HI :-)
>
> get away with passwords how?? Everytime you submit you just give
> your email address, then get a reply you have to reply to??

Not quite, the scheme I have in mind is a bit more subtle than that.
To login (or in words that are perhaps more enlightening, to
"authenticate" yourself) you just type in your email address (no
password). You will then be sent an email containing a secret URL.
Click on it, and you're logged in. The next, and most essential part
of the recipe is that a persistent cookie is then set which allows you
to remain logged in for months on end without having to
re-authenticate, much in the same way that you may remain logged into
youtube.com without having to re-authenticate. This makes the actual
authentication step a negligible since it only happens once, ever
(practically), but the advantage is that if you ever do logout, then
you don't need to remember that pesky password to log in again.

Hi :-) My wording was a bit unclear. One does not really reply to the automatic email being sent, one responds to a link sent. Still there may be problems with

Message 9 of 16
, Jan 5, 2008

0 Attachment

Hi :-)

My wording was a bit unclear. One does not really reply to the
automatic email being sent, one responds to a link sent. Still there
may be problems with the user not getting the email. I know this from
bitter experience :-( Also, is there not a security concern that such
a cookie is set without the users consent? I suggest making it
voluntary to set such a cookie. Getting away with passwords is s good
thing, it's only a matter of how to best do it ;-)

>
> per wrote:
>
> > HI :-)
> >
> > get away with passwords how?? Everytime you submit you just give
> > your email address, then get a reply you have to reply to??
>
> Not quite, the scheme I have in mind is a bit more subtle than that.
> To login (or in words that are perhaps more enlightening, to
> "authenticate" yourself) you just type in your email address (no
> password). You will then be sent an email containing a secret URL.
> Click on it, and you're logged in. The next, and most essential part
> of the recipe is that a persistent cookie is then set which allows

you

> to remain logged in for months on end without having to
> re-authenticate, much in the same way that you may remain logged

into

> youtube.com without having to re-authenticate. This makes the actual
> authentication step a negligible since it only happens once, ever
> (practically), but the advantage is that if you ever do logout, then
> you don't need to remember that pesky password to log in again.
>
> --
> Ryan Heise http://www.ryanheise.com/
>

Your message has been successfully submitted and would be delivered to recipients shortly.